Exploring Visits to the Sources of the Hudson. 315 
scene were variegated with the white glare of recent mountain slides 
as seen on the sides of various peaks, and with the glistening of the 
beautiful lakes which are so common throughout this region. To 
complete the scene, from one of the nearest settlements a vast vol- 
ume of smoke soon. rose in majestic splendor, from a fire of sixty 
acres of forest clearing, which had been prepared for the “ burning,” 
and exhibiting in the vapor which it embodied, a gorgeous array of the 
prismatic colors, crowned with the dazzling beams of the midday sun. 
The summit, as well as the mass of the mountain, was found to 
consist entirely of the labradoritic rock, which has been mentioned 
as constituting the rocks of this region, and a few small speci- 
mens of hypersthene were here procured. On some small de- 
posits of water, ice was also found at noon, half an inch in thick- 
ness. The source of the Hudson, at the head of the High Pass, 
bears N. 70° E. from the summit of this mountain, distant one and 
a quarter miles, and the descent of the mountain is here more grad- 
ual than in any other direction. Before our departure we had the 
unexpected satisfaction to discover, through a depression in the 
Mountains, a range of distant mountains in nearly an east di- 
rection, and situated apparently beyond the valley of the Connec- 
ticut ; but whether the range thus seen, be a portion of the White 
Mountains of New Hampshire or the mountains of Franconia, near 
the head of the Merrimack, does not fully appear. Our baromet- 
rical observations on this summit show an elevation of five thousand 
four hundred and sixty seven feet. This exceeds by about six 
hundred feet, the elevation of the Whiteface Mountain, as given by 
Prof. Emmons; and is more than sixteen hundred and fifty feet 
above the highest point of the Catskill Mountains. 
Wear of River Boulders. 
The descent to our camp was accomplished by a more direct and 
far steeper rout than that by which we had gained the summit, and 
our return to Lake Colden afforded us no new objects of examina- 
tion. The boulders which form the bed of the stream in the upper 
Hudson, are often of great magnitude, but below the mountains, 
where we commenced our exploration last year, the average size 
does not much exceed that of the paving stones in our cities ;—so 
great is the effect of the attrition to which these boulders are subject 
in their gradual progress down the stream. Search has been made 
by the writer, atmong the gravel from the bottom and shoals of the 
